Friday, January 25, 2008

According to an assessment published last week in the JamestownFoundation's weekly "China Brief," the People's Liberation Army navy "isdeveloping methods to disable or sink American aircraft carriers and gatheringthe specific force packages to do so."The analysis, written by China expertRichard D. Fisher Jr., says Beijing "has long anticipated that to militarilysubdue democratic Taiwan it will first need to win a battle against the UnitedStates."...In his analysis, titled "To Take Taiwan, First Kill A Carrier,"Fisher says that China's naval strategy may be to make defending Taiwan tooexpensive for the U.S. in terms of manpower, assets and political pressure."By actually sinking" an American carrier, Beijing hopes "to terminate U.S.attempts to save the island," Fisher said.According to recent Chinese mediaaccounts cited by Fisher, PLA navy officials appear to be focused onneutralizing U.S. carrier battle groups.

Here's an interesting observation from Maj. Gen. Huang Bin, a professor at the PLA National Defense University, which I often make myself:

"The United States likes vainglory; if one of its aircraft carriersshould be attacked and destroyed, people in the United States would begin tocomplain and quarrel loudly, and the U.S. president would find the going harderand harder."

Frightening but true. The loss of even one of our magnificent but increasingly vulnerable supercarriers with its 6000 crewman, would be a catastrophe far worse than the September 11 attacks, or even Pearl Harbor 1941. It would likely change our entire Expeditionary Naval Strategy that has been the foundation of our military power since World War 2.